this is bbc news. the headlines at midday. spain's king and queen attend a special mass in barcelona to honour those killed in the catalonia attacks. and the man hunt continues for the suspect who police believe drove the van on las ramblas, who escaped the scene on foot. catalonia police says investigators have identified two people from remains found in a house which exploded on wednesday night in alcanar. a british paramedic who was stabbed four times in the finland terror attack insists he's no hero. hassan zubier was attacked while trying to save a women's life. i'm just a human being who cares for other human beings. maybe it sounds silly, but that's me. i would do it again. iraqi forces have begun an offensive to retake tal afar, the last major city in the country to be held by so—called islamic state. more than 80 fire fighters have tackled a fire which destroyed

a packaging warehouse in essex. an investigation to find the cause of the fire is underway. and around the world in much more than 80 days. and coming up — a look at all things technology in india. that's in click at 12:30. good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. police investigating to terror attacks which left at least 14 people dead and 100

attacks which left at least 1a people dead and 100 injured say that they have identified the remains of two people killed in a massive explosion at a house in the small town of alcanar. authorities believe that the blast which occurred on wednesday deprived the plotters of all material so that they executed simple attacks using vehicles to ram crowds. in barcelona, a memorial service in honour of the victims has place this morning at the city's famous sagrada familia basilica. king felipe and queen letizia of spain have been attending the mass and on saturday, the royal couple visited some of the dozens of people injured when a van was driven into pedestrians in las ramblas, killing 13. tonight the city's football team will wear black armbands and shirts bearing the words "we are all barcelona" as well as holding a minute's silence before they play their first game of the season at their home stadium while the city mourns, a manhunt is still under way for moroccan—born younes abouyaaqoub, the 22—year—old believed to be the van driver who escaped after the barcelona attack. 0ur correspondent, gavin lee, is in barcelona with the latest. gavin, we have had developments and

a press c0 nfe re nce gavin, we have had developments and a press conference from authorities. yes, and it is still ongoing as we speak. i said you what catalan officials is saying is that they have identified the driver of the las ramblas attacks. at the moment, they haven't given the details of who that driver is. that may come in the next few minutes as we are on air. remember, the chief suspect in this, one of the 12 attackers police we re this, one of the 12 attackers police were looking for, younes abouyaaqoub, the 22—year—old moroccan national, there is no sign of him. police are saying the international manhunt continues for him but as yet those two have not been connected. the press conference is ongoing. two men have also been identified from a house where there was an explosion in a place called alcanar further along the was an explosion in a place called alca nar further along the coast. this connects because the day before the attacks, this huge explosion,

bottles of propane and butane with bomb—making equipment. what we have heard from the press conference just 110w heard from the press conference just now is that the bombers were planning on three separate bomb attacks in vehicles, three different bands that were being rented to three different areas with the explosive devices. clearly what has happened, the theory is, that what there was an accidental explosion and two attackers were killed. they hastily went into action targeting las ramblas you in barcelona. the other thing to bring you up—to—date with, a colleague who is in the town of ripoll, at the centre of the operation, it is not some men were based there. he has spoken to the father of two of the suspects who we re father of two of the suspects who were killed at the second attack in cambrils. the father has told the bbc that he spoke to his son is two hours before they carried out the attack and he said he had no awareness of what they were about to do but he believes that they were influenced by the imam of a local mosque, somebody else on the radar

of the police now and and raid took place in his house yesterday. we are getting more and more details and i think today we will have a much better picture of what happened on thursday night in the early hours of friday morning. gavin, it is very sobering thought that if the explosion has not happened the attack, already devastating as they we re attack, already devastating as they were on las ramblas would have been so were on las ramblas would have been so much worse. yes, one thing that has been reflected here behind me at the sagrada familia, the iconic church, is that's probably about 2000 people inside and outside gathered for the public day of memorial with king felipe and queen letizia a. the prime minister as well. it was set out here by people in the street that actually how quickly the police deployed to the attack in las ramblas afterwords, given as you just said if there were explosives, the consequences would be much

worse. where we are now, the police are very cautious about giving too many details at the moment but i think we are clear in the fact that they are boiling down to two people who do please want to know what happened to. younes abouyaaqoub, the 22—year—old but also the imam of the mosque in ripoll, who disappeared two months ago. he has reportedly been cited two days ago in the region. the allegation reported in the spanish press is that he organised, influence and radicalise these men. those investigations are continuing. gavin lee at the sagrada familia. thank you for bringing us up—to—date with that fast—moving investigation. margaret gilmore is a senior associate fellow at the royal united services institute. speaking to me a little earlier she gave me her analysis of last weeks attack. i think what we have seen in the last six months or so in particular is that isis has been setting up and establishing itself more strongly and making stronger links with groups in northern africa.

in this particular case, morocco is fairly close to spain and therefore easier to get to. there are moroccan communities. but i think we have to be careful about making that link too strong. morocco is a country that is very friendly to the west. what we have here is a group of people who are from a particular community that happens to be a moroccan community. they have become extreme in their views, they are closely knit, groups of brothers, they have grown up together in the same place and formed a cell and then, under the influence of probably somebody who has been guiding them as a cell but also under the influence of isis so supporters of, i would say. given that they were able to come together and operate, organise for almost a whole year undetected, is that because they were close family links? how is it possible to get

to this stage undetected? well, it does appear that none of them have been on the radar and that is unusual. in virtually every other attack in recent years, they have either had a criminal background or they have been known to the authorities, but there has not been enough evidence against them. also, one member of the cell is often the weaker link if you are operating together. i think what they seem to have done is they have established themselves as a very mainstream, ordinary, on facebook, going out with girls and leading a fairly westernised life and underneath it all, it seems that they have been leading a second, double life and maybe that's something they have been doing intentionally so that they don't draw attention to themselves, but certainly it is unusual for them to have kept together such a large group for so long undetected. but then they have not got any kind of record that has brought them to the attention of the authorities. will we ever know whether they were

guided by so—called islamic state or whether they were operating effectively themselves with influence by them? influence, absolutely. these groups mix and morph and change. i think we will find out much, much more. when you have a cell like that, there are a lot of people and a lot of information. there will be other people who may be linked who are still alive. if they are caught alive, you can find information on that. the other thing is that right now, the spanish authorities and i suspect our own authorities helping them will know a lot more than we do in the public. either they will have access already and will be trawling through their computers, who they were dealing with, what websites they were going onto, where they may have travelled in the last year or two and most importantly, who they have been speaking to. have they been speaking to people on particular phone lines and where are those phone lines set up? at they set in morocco or in other countries? margaret gilmore from

the royal united services institute. gavin said the press conference is ongoing. we have a new line from the catalonia police. the chief says they cannot rule out that the suspect is still at large in barcelona, the suspect may have actually crossed the french border saw the suspect is that they are interested in speaking to following the barcelona attacks, that suspect may have crossed the french border. 0ne may have crossed the french border. one new line coming from the catalonian authorities. we will continue to monitor any new information that comes from them. a british paramedic, stabbed repeatedly during a terror attack in finland, has described how he tried in vain to save the life of one of the victims. speaking from his hospital bed, hassan zubier has told the bbc he wouldn't hesitate to do the same again, but insists he is no hero. two women died and eight other people were wounded in the city of turku on friday. simonjones has this report.

finnish police say they have been making further searches of property in this city but so far have been unable to interview the main suspect. simonjones has this report. the market square that became the scene of a terror attack. hassan zubier was on holiday in turku. he tried to protect his girlfriend and help those who had been injured, kicking the attacker. speaking from his hospital bed, he said despite his efforts, one of the women died in his arms. i'm nota hero, i'mjust a human being who cares for other human beings. maybe it sounds silly, but that's me. i would do it again, anytime, because the world is such a dark place. and if we don't help each other, who is going to help us? at the same time, a girl lost her life. i feel so upset that i could not save her. this is the world we live in at this time. tributes in the square to those who lost their lives

and were injured. the attack was witnessed by many. i was in the bank with my wife. people were running from here. the window, from the window, i saw people just running there. i thought, what's happening? i came out. the guy had already stabbed two ladies in front of the bank. police say the attack are deliberately targeted women. an 18—year—old moroccan was arrested after being shot by police. four other suspects are being held. this is the first terrorist attack in finland. of course, the whole nation is mourning now, and so the whole europe is mourning with us. hassan zubier, who now lives in sweden, is being offered support by the uk embassy in finland. the iraqi army has begun an offensive to retake tal afar — the last major city in the country held by so—called islamic state.

the iraqi prime minister, haider al—abadi, said the militants had no choice other than to leave or be killed. sarah corker reports. iraqi armed units head for the city of tal afar, 80 kilometres west of mosul. troops have the area surrounded and for several days, warplanes bombed is positions. so—called islamic state has held it since 2014. in a televised speech, the iraqi prime minister announced the start of the ground offensive to retake the city. translation: i told them to either surrender or die. as we promised before, we promise now, we will continue the liberation process. it's five weeks since the iraqi government declared victory in mosul, iraq's second city, after a fierce nine—month battle. around 2,000 is militants are thought to remain in tal afar. thousands of civilians have fled under the cover

of darkness for weeks now. it's not known how many remain. translation: if they had caught us, they would've given us a bullet to the head. thank god we fled. the situation over there is dire. they have no food, water anything to drink. the un has warned of a new wave of displaced civilians with fighting intensifying, and if the iraqi troops succeed in liberating tal afar, it will be a severe blow to the is presence in iraq. 0ur correspondent rami ruhayem is following the story from beirut. et al have now the focus point following the fall of muscle in july. following the fall of muscle in july. yes, and tal afar was always

critical even during the battle for morsel itself. tal afar operates a very strategic position between mosul and the border with syria so it was crucial for the iraqi army and the forces fighting alongside it to cut off the road from mosul into tal afar while they were trying to reta ke tal afar while they were trying to retake mosul. after mosul was taken, obviously the focus turns to tal afar. it is strategically many reasons. also it will probably help the iraqi army expands their control into the desert to the south as well as to the west into syria. a stark warning from the prime minister to the jihadists, warning from the prime minister to thejihadists, surrender warning from the prime minister to the jihadists, surrender or die. warning from the prime minister to thejihadists, surrender or die. not many options there. yes, that is what we have been hearing from the iraqi authorities before the launch of every new offensive against the

remaining urban strongholds of so—called islamic state groups. they basically tell them that they are out of options and that their only choice to escape death is to surrender. it remains to be seen what the approximately 2000 ies fighters will choose to do. in the past, most of them have chosen to fight or many of them have chosen to fight or many of them have chosen to fight till the bitter end. in mosul, they have certainly done that and they have certainly done that and they managed to fight for quite a long time, quite a few months they held out in different parts of the city before it was taken. some people now say that they will not be able to do the same with tal afar because they are losing more and more territorially in both iraq and syria. they are demoralised. we cannot know for sure and many of them have been known to fight till them have been known to fight till the end even when it appears that the end even when it appears that the battle is hopeless for them. thank you for bringing us up to

date. the headlines on bbc news: spain's king and queen have attended a special mass in barcelona to honour those killed in the catalonia attacks. and catalonian police say that investigators have identified two people from remains found in a house which exploded on wednesday night in alcanar. a british paramedic who was stabbed four times in the finland terror attack insists he's no hero. hassan zubier was attacked while trying to save a women's life. sports now. jessica is there for us. good afternoon. let's start with football, and tottenham will host chelsea for their first premier league home game, at their temporary stadium, wembley. although spurs lost to chelsea three times at wembley, manager mauricio pochettino says he's looking forward to playing the league champions. to play against chelsea with the last premier league

champion always is massive motivation for us. i respect chelsea. it's just to play now and try to show that we are better than them and it's always a challenge to play with a champion and try to be better. in the lunchtume kick off, newly promoted sides huddersfield and newcastle go head to head. newcastle will be hoping to pick up their first points of the season, while for huddersfield — who impressed in their win over crystal palace last week — it will be their first home game in the top flight for 45 years. the good thing is that we have a chance. this is a good thing and as i said before, you play yourfirst premier league game at home and we altogether have the feeling we have a chance to be successful against newcastle. this is the only thing which you'd like to have, the feeling that you have a chance but for this, to be successful, we have to be our best on sunday. you will play against a side which are normally very difficult,

but in this case, because it is at the beginning and they did really well the other day, expectations are very high so it will be tough, for sure. how difficult? i will tell you in six months it was the most difficult or not. england's cricketers took 19 wickets in a day, to beat west indies by a record margin: an innings and 209 runs in the first test, at edgbaston. stuart broad took three for 3a in their second innings, as west indies crumbled to 137 all out. it means broad moves up to second in the all—time list of england's leading test wicket takers, above sir ian botham, which broad describes as a special day. he's obviously been a hero of mine, watching him bowl and play throughout my younger years, obviously playing with my dad and the influence he has had on me, his performances against australia is inspirational. so it's great to chat to him now. you can see how happy he is for me and, look, it's a special day

but as i say, a wonderful team performance. a very powerful team performance but it was lovely to get that three wickets spell towards the end of the day to see us home, really. england's men have opened their eurohockey campaign with a 6—0 win over poland two goals each from mark gleghorne and sam ward alongside strikes from chris griffiths and david condon made for a comfortable victory in amsterdam. they next play germany tomorrow afternoon, probably the pick of the games in pool b. and despite their win, england know they will need to improve. in place really. you know, too many wobbly passes, too many passes just out of reach, just real basics that we need to make sure we get right all the time and get where we want

to involve hockey. it doesn't matter who were playing against, we got away with it today against lesser opposition, but we need to be bringing that everyday. and england's women play germany later this afternoon while scotland's game against ireland has just got underway. sir mo farah will run his last track race on home soil later today. he won world championship gold and silver in the 10,000 and 5,000 metres in london earlier this month, he'll race over 3,000 metres in the birmingham grand prix. but he's already looking forward to his next challenge — racing in marathons. it's about learning about the event, understanding the event and going in fresh minded and with no pressure and going in there and seeing what i can do on the road. i think it will ta ke can do on the road. i think it will take mea can do on the road. i think it will take me a couple of times at least to get it right. it's not like i'm just going to go... gun—runner 2.0 five, straightaway. it will take a little while. that's all sport for now. i'll have more in the next hour. thank you.

in a few minutes' time, the clipper round the world yacht race will set off from albert dock in liverpool. 12 teams will spend a year sailing the globe in a 40,000 nautical mile race, featuring 700 participants over eight stages. 0ur correspondent andy gill is at the albert dock in liverpool for us now. andy, not long now! not long at all. you can see the yachts lining up on the start shortly. the first leg takes them from liverpool all the way across the atlantic to uruguay, a journey ofa the atlantic to uruguay, a journey of a month or possibly more. many of the crew have no experience of oceangoing yachting. the race director here is mark like. you have just given the ten minute warning, what does that mean the crews will be doing on—board? what does that mean the crews will be doing on-board? they are doing final checks now, very close to the race start. they are checking the lines are rigged ready and setting position. they are raring to go.

yourjob is race director. what does that mean? i manage all be on the water operations all around the world. i manage the skippers and the boats and i'm lucky enough to follow the fleet around the world on an aeroplane, not on the water! have you sealed yourself?” aeroplane, not on the water! have you sealed yourself? i am a professional sailor and i have skippered the clipper race three races ago. how seriously do they ta ke races ago. how seriously do they take the racing, given that the racers from all sorts of professions. i'd be keen on the racing will not bothered? this is a very serious race. they put so much in to get to this point and the training and the effort, financial and time commitment is immense. when they get racing, especially when they get racing, especially when they get racing in big weather, you will see how serious it is. a great. do they... does the training keep them —— give them the skills for racing orjust post? is that

although you have to add on or do you have loaded at sea? our training is very comprehensive and no matter who you are, what ever experience you have previously, you do the same training. we build it up sailing wise and our final week of training out of the four weeks is race training essentially. how accurate are you? it seems to me lining up ships on water can't be that accurate am i mistaken? these guys, the skippers are highly skilled and very professional, as are we, and we run race starts like this all over the world and it is going to be a good one here. fairly calm conditions, good for a start or would you like more of a blog? more breeze would be nice, but it is salea ble breeze would be nice, but it is saleable and i can feel it now so i think you'll be really good. you need to start the race and we will let you go. eddie very much indeed. the race will start at half past 12. the race will start at half past 12. the draft yachts will be back in liverpool for the end of the round

the world race injuly next year. thank you. what an adventure! firefighters in essex to have been tackling a huge fire at a warehouse in essex have brought it under control. around 100 firefighters we re control. around 100 firefighters were called to the building in basildon. the warehouse was really engulfed by flames at an industrial unit next door was also affected. police say that they do not think there are any casualties. fraudsters aiming to scam people out of their pensions savings could soon face fines of up to half a million pounds. the government will introduce new measures to protect older savers, such as a ban on cold calling and tougher rules for those setting up pension schemes. criminals tricked savers out of nearly £5 million in the first five months of this year. here's our business correspondent joe lynam. for thousands of pensioners, a ringing phone has become something to dread rather than look forward to. that's because fraudsters are preying on older people

on an almost industrial scale, trying to get their hands on their pension savings. the government is acting, though, by introducing new laws. banning anyone calling you without express permission to sell you an investment. you'll soon only be able to transfer large sums to proper companies with up—to—date accounts. and convicted fraudsters could face fines of up to half a million pounds. the government is reacting to a situation we have found by way of consultation and evidence gathering. we're responding to what the police and pensioners organisations have said. it is massively supported by organisations like age uk. but there is little the government can do to prevent criminals overseas contacting older people, so the message from age uk is always be vigilant, and if in doubt, hang up. a seaside town was reportedly in "lockdown" last night

as disorderforced pubs and bars in the resort to shut. venues in cromer, norfolk, said they had closed early due to "local events." cromer pier posted on social media to say its theatre bar was closing "on the advice of police." norfolk police said extra officers were on patrol "following reports of low—level disorder." local residents on social media described the town as "being on lock down." and speak to chris perry who was on holiday camping in cromer. chris, what did you see? what has been happening? balls press, talk to us about what you saw? well, what i saw was that the pub i was in watching the football match in the evening, the football match in the evening, the police came in and asked the landlady to close the doors, sealed

the pub up and keep us in the establishment. the pub was still operational, but we were locked in. later on that evening, we returned our campsite a later on that evening, we returned ourcampsitea group later on that evening, we returned our campsite a group of individuals had made their way to the bar at the campsite and those individuals, the landlady of that establishment did not want to serve them. the police arrived in huge numbers and there was a tense moment where the police we re was a tense moment where the police were outside and the individuals we re were outside and the individuals were inside the clubhouse at the campsite and were not moving on. they did move on after a period of time but not after a lot of anxious waiting outside. you can imagine, this is a family campsite which... the pub was shot, the shutters were closed and the police were there and asa closed and the police were there and as a say in great numbers. what is the situation now? very calm. i drove past... when we woke up this

morning, everything was calm, the sun was shining, the sky was blue, the area where the individuals may have been causing an affray and the issues, they were still there but as i would past at ten o'clock this morning, there were signs of them disbursing and moving on. but yes, i am now away from cromer at a friend's near dyrham but when i left at10am, friend's near dyrham but when i left at 10am, things were calm and quiet. chris, good to hear that. we wish you the best of luck with your holiday. hope you get nice weather for it coming there. an eyewitness who saw some of the events taking place in call that a cromer. we can also speak to rihanna, co—owner of the wellington pub in cromer. is it still shut? we are still shut today. we decided for the safety of our customers and our staff mostly to be fair that we will continue to be shut until they are rigged. what was the situation in the late last

night? what happened? to be fair, we haven't had any trouble actually in the pub, but they did turn up yesterday. they were rather rowdy. there were about 16 of them. after a few hours, the number rose to about 30. obviously, as you can imagine, with a massive group like that, they can be very intimidating. why they we re can be very intimidating. why they were asked to leave, they tried to grab my manager across the bar and also told him that he had to give them some money to reef and that was when we decided we would actually call the police and that is when we decided that we would shut the doors completely. we have been hearing that traffic police are sending out extra officers on patrol ‘s soul that you are feeling reassured? we